Tag: USC College Football Playoff

Is a 10-2 USC team guaranteed a College Football Playoff berth?

USC fans want to know if 9-3 gives USC better than a 50-50 chance of making the playoff.

One caller on our USC football show at The Voice of College Football was curious if a 9-3 Trojan team can get into the College Football Playoff. We discussed the scenarios that make it likely a 10-2 USC team can’t be kept out of the playoff.

We wrote on this subject earlier in August:

Texas plays Michigan before Michigan plays USC. The Trojans need Michigan to beat Texas, which leads us into the broader conversation about USC and a 9-3 record making the playoff: USC needs the Big Ten to be elite, and it should hope that Big Ten teams win big games against non-Big Ten teams. Michigan over Texas is a perfect example. If Michigan beats Texas and USC, and USC and Texas are both 9-3, USC’s games against LSU and Notre Dame give the Trojans enough schedule strength to offset Texas’s game against Georgia. If Texas is 9-3 but loses to both Michigan and Georgia, chances are USC will have better wins than the Longhorns.

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Social media reaction: USC’s College Football Playoff dream dies in Pac-12 Championship Game

Caleb Williams did everything he could, but Utah was tougher, better, and — in a surprise plot twist — healthier. O-line depth was exposed with Andrew Vorhees out.

Losing is painful. Losing when the College Football Playoff was one win away is painful. Yet, the most painful part of USC’s loss to Utah in the Pac-12 Championship Game is simply that: the pain of the night.

USC players experienced and absorbed a lot of pain. They dropped like flies with all the injuries that befell them.

Andrew Vorhees didn’t play. That was a massive injury — as it turns out, one USC couldn’t really live with against Utah’s front seven. It created a domino effect in which Mason Murphy had to be thrown into the game at right tackle. Utah was missing Van Fillinger and Jonah Elliss, but USC missing Vorhees mattered even more.

Then came the big one, Caleb Williams being hobbled. Late in the game, Brett Neilon and Austin Jones both went down. It was a rotten night for injuries, which exposed USC’s depth. Utah ran away with the game, but this was a three-point contest with just over 10 minutes left. USC will lament lots of things about this game, but the biggest lamentation is this: We wish we had all our guys healthy.

Credit to Utah, a tough team which was uniquely suited to make the Trojans pay the price.

Reaction to this game, specifically from the vantage point of USC’s offense, unfolds below:

USC, Alabama could fight for final College Football Playoff spot if Trojans lose to Utah

Of course #USC would not like its chances if it lost to Utah, but the Trojans could still get in, and Nick Saban might be the final obstacle. #CFBPlayoff

Yes, yes, if USC beats Utah, we don’t need to have this conversation. USC could just beat Utah, win the Pac-12 title, finish 12-1, and go to the College Football Playoff without any questions asked. The Trojans are clearly in a “win and in” position after all the carnage which occurred on Saturday, including LSU losing to Texas A&M. LSU Wire has full coverage of that story.

Ohio State lost to Michigan.

Clemson was shocked by South Carolina.

Oregon lost to Oregon State.

That’s four teams in the top nine of the playoff rankings entering Saturday.

Of course USC is in the playoff with a win, but we have to entertain the question, “What if USC loses to Utah?” Can the Trojans still make it?

It’s possible.

Here’s what USC will need to get in, and here’s the set of variables you will need to consider:

USC cracks top 10 in first College Football Playoff rankings

The first #CFBPlayoff rankings are out. See where #USC stacks up against #Oregon #Utah #UCLA and, of course, the top four.

The USC Trojans were placed at No. 9 in the season’s first College Football Playoff rankings, revealed on Tuesday.

There was a lot of discussion entering these rankings if Oregon or USC would be first. The Ducks are winning games by bigger margins and have a win over UCLA in their pocket, but they still did lose by 46 points to Georgia in Week 1 without scoring a touchdown. USC’s only loss was a one-point loss to Utah on the road, as impressive as a loss can realistically be.

Where did Oregon land relative to USC? Where did Utah and UCLA fall? What about the top four spots? Find out below: